September 2016 Housing Starts in Peterborough

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 11, 2016) - Housing starts in the Peterborough Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending up at 656 units in September compared to 524 units in August, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

"Demand for new homes has proved resilient. After a short-lived pause, the trend for housing starts rose again during the month of September. Demand has been sufficiently strong to not only increase starts but also to reduce inventories of unsold new homes to the lowest level in two years," said Olga Golozub, CMHC's Market Analyst for Peterborough.

CMHC uses the trend measure as a complement to the monthly SAAR of housing starts to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and obtain a more complete picture of the state of the housing market. In some situations, analysing only SAAR data can be misleading in some markets, as they are largely driven by the multiples segment of the markets which can be quite variable from one month to the next. The multi-unit segment includes apartment, row and semi-detached homes.

The standalone monthly SAAR was 869 units in September, up from 112 units in August, due to an increase in single-detached starts and continued strength in row starts. Actual starts for the first nine months of 2016 increased 50.8 per cent from the same period in 2015.

As Canada's authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers objective housing research and information to Canadian governments, consumers and the housing industry.